THG, the UK-based sports nutrition and beauty products business, has confirmed it plans to cut more than 100 jobs across divisions.
The elimination of 171 positions by the Manchester-headquartered e-commerce retailer, including within the nutrition and beauty business units, was first reported by The Financial Times, which said THG has cut around a third of jobs to about 7,000 over the past two years in a cost-savings drive.
Acknowledging the planned redundancies, THG provided a statement via a spokesperson: “THG is committed to continuously improving operational efficiency as a business to best serve our global customer base.
“As part of this continuing focus, THG is restructuring some business areas to ensure we continue to leverage recent investments, including in automation, technology and AI.
“Subject to the ongoing consultation, these changes will likely result in a limited number of roles becoming redundant. Whilst this is regrettable, THG will support all affected colleagues and seek to offer them an alternative role within the group.”
Set up in 2004 initially as The Hut Group by CEO Matthew Moulding, London-listed THG is the owner of the Myprotein sports nutrition range and the Lookfantastic beauty brand.
Over the last couple of months, the Myprotein range has been launched in high street retailers WH Smith and Boots.
Nutrition revenues fell in the first quarter to 31 March. They were down 9% on a reported basis at £150.8m ($194m) and 5.8% lower in constant currency terms, according to a trading update issued in April.
Group revenue climbed 2.1% and 4.5%, respectively, to £455.4m.
THG also filed its annual results in April for the 12 months to 31 December, a year when a takeover approach from Apollo Global Management was rejected.
Revenue declined 8.4% to £2.05bn, while sales revenue for the nutrition division was flat at £657.9m.
Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations increased 48.4% to £120.4m, but the business remained in a loss to the tune of £185.4m, albeit narrowing from a £495.6m loss a year earlier.
THG said the UK continues to be its “key growth market”, although international sales accounted for 54.2% of group revenue but down from 57.1% in 2023.
For the nutrition segment, the company said it will expand manufacturing in the second half of 2024 from sites in the UK, Europe and the US, into Japan. India was added in the first quarter of this year.
As well as online, THG has licensing agreements with retailers. It added in the results statement with respect to nutrition: “There remains a significant opportunity to build out the licensed product base and scale total brand sales through collaborations with major grocers and food and beverage brands.
“In the UK, we have delivered further retail penetration across over 2,500 stores, and you can now find Myprotein products on shelves in every major UK grocer.”
